TRAVEL DIARY: COPENHAGEN DESIGN TOUR

Ok, you might want to get a cup of tea cos this post is pretty epic! A couple of weeks ago the lovely folks at Amara took me and a few other bloggers to Copenhagen to explore the city and some cool Danish designers that they stock on their website for gifts and homewares. Not only did I fall in love with this city all over again to the point that we are thinking of moving (real talk and more on that later) but I got to indulge in great company, incredible Danish food and most importantly PRODUCT PORN!

DAY 1

On the first day we got checked into our wicked hotel, the SP34 in the Latin quarter of CPH.

The library room was typical in Danish style, a lot of wood and relaxed tan leather.

The lounge area was my favourite with high contrast gallery walls and soft seating in muted pastels. I even kinda matched the decor with my new lilac roots.

The hallway area had some interesting wall decals and simple, modern brass lighting.

They even had a little bar / grill in house called 'cocks and cows'... no comment on the name! We had a little bite to eat here as we arrived at the hotel, then headed up to our rooms to get ready for a walking tour and boat ride around the city.

The rooms themselves continued the tan leather and wood theme with touches of brass. Really nice!

Ready for the tour and dinner at the uber trendy Pate Pate! Isn't it funny that when you're outside of your own city you wear clothes you'd never normally wear?! Love this dress though, it has sparkly sequinned eyes. I won it in an instagram competition from Illustrated People. Score.

Walking the city and seeing lots of bikes and gorgeous buildings.

I should mention that bikes are a big thing here. Like, REALLY BIG. They have more respect than people with cars.

Also, because we were on a bloggers trip it was totally acceptable to stop every 5 cms or wherever there was a good wall and take picture of each other looking cool and effortless and blogger-y.

Erica from The Edited (who is now my pose coach / guru) told me to try looking away from the camera and not smiling because it's cheesy! Haha! Shit man I've been doing it wrong all this time. In fact, the results of this were quite good. Might take up this fashion blogging posing lark..

Anyway, onto the boat ride...

Time to pose like I've never seen champagne before...

Note the people kayaking behind me on the river? Yeah that's like, a normal thing to do. 'Just going out kayaking to pick up the groceries honey'. Imagine doing that in the Thames? Fuck. Starting to understand why I want to move to CPH?

Lots of lovely architecture along the river bank (more of this in my Vlog).

We reached our destination and took a short stroll to Pate Pate, where we first sat outside (with more champagne). Starting to become a normal thing. Quite tipsy by this point.

Fly shades bruv.

We were then lucky enough to meet Hans Hornemann, the young designer of the new ACE chair which is sure to be a new design favourite. It comes flat packed and in a range of colours and fabrics. My fave was the burgundy velvet as seen in the pic below.

After that it was time to take more shameless blogger pics. Amazing how quickly being so self absorbed can feel, well... completely normal.

This is the pattern of the plastic clutch I got.

Blogger pile up! What happens when you're all trying to get the same shot in the same setting?!

They then laid us on an incredible lunch of Smørrebrød (Danish open sandwiches) which were delish!

After that we made a flying stop at the Danish Design Museum (you can see more of this on my video) and took a few moments to soak in the sun in their pretty courtyard garden. And pose. Duh!

Sidenote: I especially like how the wind has caught my shirt here and made it look like I actually have an ass.

Onto By Lassen, who welcomed us with cupcakes and strawberries. Oh and more champagne! I know what you're thinking, it's hard life being a blogger isn't it?

By Lassen are particularly known for their big cuddle bear like armchairs (the tired man) and their cubic style candleholders and tables.

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By Lassen felt to me like the brand most interested in connecting with their history of traditional Danish design.

One of By Lassen's designers talked about how they recovered this one original Saxe chair and have tirelessly recreated it in modern form (the original designer, Lassen, is sadly no longer alive). They got this one at auction and have been trying to replicate it as perfectly as possible.

After gobbling up the rest of the cupcakes it was a short stroll to the centre of town to visit HAY.

Their showroom was an epic space of discovery, showcasing their various products, some only available in that specific store.

Some of the coolest outdoor furniture I've seen (kind of modern Edwardian style to me, especially with those palms don't you think?)

Squad goals.

However, by far the most exciting bit for me about HAY was the mini market! It was a treasure hunters dream packed full of kitsch toys, stationary, bits and bobs and random miscellanea that I couldn't really explain but GOD DAMMIT I WANTED IT ALL.

After stocking up on various knick-knacks, it was time to say goodbye to HAY and head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Baest.

DAY 3

On the last day we just mooched around town for a bit taking pics and hanging out before heading home.

Here's me and Russ being as cool as we possibly can.

And here's me doing the whole look away no smile thang...

Shit, couldn't keep it up!

My trip to Copenhagen was so great. I'm super appreciative of Amara for taking us out there and treating us like VIP's the whole time, plus all the brands who took time out to show us around their showrooms and products. Oh did I mention I even got some goodies to take home with me?! Here's what I got!

Take a peek over on the Amara site at Normann Copenhagen, By Lassen and HAY to see what goodies you can find. Perfect for xmas gifts! Wow am I talking about that already?!

Here's the vlog of our trip if you missed it earlier this month...

In the meantime, stay tuned for a monthly favourites including my Normann Copenhagen clutch aaaaaaand more importantly the beginnings of my quest to move to Copenhagen for a few months next year.

There will be lots to do to make that happen but I am putting it out to the universe! I'm lucky enough to be able to work from anywhere and Marley isn't in school yet. So it's like, why not? Right?! We've already started looking into apartments... Watch this space.

Hey peeps! Sorry for a few days of no blogs, we just got back from a week away in Copenhagen. You may remember that I visited CPH on a press trip with Amara earlier in the year, and because I loved it so much wed decided to take a trip as a family. I thought you might be interested in things to see in Copenhagen, and one of our most enjoyed days out of our holiday was this trip to Glyptoteket, an art museum built around the collection of Carl Jacobsen.

Back in January I was invited along to visit Porcelanosa’s HQ in beautiful Valencia. After getting to explore the city a little, I realised that Valencia was the perfect family getaway. Warm, easy to travel around, culture, great history and architecture PLUS a shed load of museums, galleries and days out that would keep my 3 yr old daughter Marley well entertained without boring us to tears. We booked a cute little AirBnB and headed out at the end of May for what has been our first full family holiday since Stockholm a couple of years back.

Ok, you might want to get a cup of tea cos this post is pretty epic! A couple of weeks ago the lovely folks at Amara took me and a few other bloggers to Copenhagen to explore the city and some cool Danish designers that they stock on their website for gifts and homewares. Not only did I fall in love with this city all over again to the point that we are thinking of moving (real talk and more on that later) but I got to indulge in great company, incredible Danish food and most importantly PRODUCT PORN!

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest of Amara to Copenhagen for a whistlestop tour of the city's best design houses and brands. I have a full photo diary coming very soon, but in the meantime I thought you might appreciate this vlog I put together highlighting our favourite parts of our 3 day trip!

Right peeps, get ready for some proper luxury here! In this post I'm sharing all of my photos from Day 2 of our trip to Valencia with Porcelanosa to see their showrooms and new product lines for 2016. On day one we got taken to an amazing restaurant and then on a tour of Valencia's history and architecture. That could in itself have been enough but on day 2 it was down to business as we got to explore the Porcelanosa factories and showrooms. Yes, I said showrooms - this company is HUGE! I am talking like, every showroom being the size of IKEA. We went to at least 5 of them, I lost count.

Read on to see just a fraction of what was going on at Porcelanosa's design festival. A Michelin starred chef cooking for us and some of the most exquisite bathrooms and kitchen I've ever seen are just some of what's going on in this post. Grab yourself a cuppa, cos it's a whopper!